Where did it all go?

Hello, My Dear LJ Chums. I have sadly neglected you over this past fortnight while I have been on holiday (a staycation in the modern vernacular), but I aim to put that right immediately while my office email fills with two weeks worth of flapdoodle – currently over a thousand new messages and counting. Guess what I shall be doing today?

The unalloyed joy of returning to an office where between three and four in every ten of us is staring down the wrong end of the redundancy shotgun has been rather spoilt for me by the best efforts of London Underground to welcome me back.

The train to Stratford was on time and as efficient as ever, but then I was delivered into the clutches of London Underground itself. I never use the Central Line if I could help it, and was congratulating myself on this habit since it was posting severe delays along the entire route and at Stratford the snything swarm of people jammed there looked as if they were camped in for the duration. I made my way to the Jubilee Line, where I got the first inkling that perhaps my journey might not be quite as rose-strewn as I’d hoped. The line was suspended between Waterloo and Finchley Road with – yes, you’ve guessed it – severe delays on the rest of the line.

And so the stately progress continued, with layovers at every second station, presumably for some local court to convene, followed by sedate progress westwards. The driver kept us entertained by announcing changes to the terminus, which flickered between Waterloo and London Bridge a number of times before settling on the latter, where after keeping us waiting for six or seven minutes he decided that he would go no further. Off the train the at London Bridge and a walk through one of the busiest interchanges to the Northern Line, which was subject to… er… severe delays. Thence to Bank and a wander through the most badly designed underground complex on the London Underground to the District Line (minor delays) and eventually to Victoria.

Into the office then at 10.30, almost exactly two hours after I’d left home.

I am happy to be back. No, really.

Where did it all go?

Hello, My Dear LJ Chums. I have sadly neglected you over this past fortnight while I have been on holiday (a staycation in the modern vernacular), but I aim to put that right immediately while my office email fills with two weeks worth of flapdoodle – currently over a thousand new messages and counting. Guess what I shall be doing today?

The unalloyed joy of returning to an office where between three and four in every ten of us is staring down the wrong end of the redundancy shotgun has been rather spoilt for me by the best efforts of London Underground to welcome me back.

The train to Stratford was on time and as efficient as ever, but then I was delivered into the clutches of London Underground itself. I never use the Central Line if I could help it, and was congratulating myself on this habit since it was posting severe delays along the entire route and at Stratford the snything swarm of people jammed there looked as if they were camped in for the duration. I made my way to the Jubilee Line, where I got the first inkling that perhaps my journey might not be quite as rose-strewn as I’d hoped. The line was suspended between Waterloo and Finchley Road with – yes, you’ve guessed it – severe delays on the rest of the line.

And so the stately progress continued, with layovers at every second station, presumably for some local court to convene, followed by sedate progress westwards. The driver kept us entertained by announcing changes to the terminus, which flickered between Waterloo and London Bridge a number of times before settling on the latter, where after keeping us waiting for six or seven minutes he decided that he would go no further. Off the train the at London Bridge and a walk through one of the busiest interchanges to the Northern Line, which was subject to… er… severe delays. Thence to Bank and a wander through the most badly designed underground complex on the London Underground to the District Line (minor delays) and eventually to Victoria.

Into the office then at 10.30, almost exactly two hours after I’d left home.

I am happy to be back. No, really.